Old Pond publishing days

Know Your Ducks book advance information

Know Your Ducks by Jack Byard. Paperback, 104 x 155mm (landscape), 96 pages inc. 44 photographs. ISBN: 978-1-906853-82-2. Now in stock at Old Pond at £4.99.

Jack Byard’s eighth book in the popular 'Know Your…' series covers 44 breeds of duck ranging from those which you are likely to see on your local pond to a few which are extremely rare. Some are native British breeds while others come from a little further afield. If you look closely you can see all of the breeds domesticated in Britain today.

Know Your Ducks is designed for the novice enthusiast of any age. For each breed the right-hand page is dedicated to a quality picture of the breed accompanied by a description of its appearance. On the facing page is a concise description of the breed’s origins and its history. For many for the breeds Jack gives a description of their personality, egg-laying and flying abilities and how they are best kept.

Breeds included
Abacot Ranger - African Yellow Billed - Ancona - Australian Spotted - Aylesbury - Baikal Teal - Bali - Black-Bellied Whistling - Black East Indian - Bronze Winged - Call - Campbell - Carolina - Cayuga - Chiloe Wigeon - Eider - Gadwall - Garganey - Goldeneye - Harlequin - Indian Runner - Magpie - Mallard - Mandarin - Muscovy - Orpington - Pekin - Pintail - Red-Billed Pintail - Red-Crested Pochard - Redhead - Ringed Teal - Rosy-Billed Pochard - Rouen - Ruddy Shelduck - Saxony - Sharp-Winged Teal - Silky - Silver Appleyard - South African Shelduck - Swedish Blue - Tufted - Welsh Harlequin - White-Faced Whistling.

Big Plant: excavators and cranes DVD advance information

Big Plant: excavators and cranes in action. Five-DVD set, running time approx 9 hours.ISBN 978-1-906853-87-7 To be released in March by Old Pond at £24.95 (inc. VAT).

In 1998 Geoff Lewis began recording big plant at sites in Wales and elsewhere. He started with a look at Ruston-Bucyrus, the company in which he had served his apprenticeship.
He released eight more programmes over the years under the heading ‘Cranes and Excavators’. This constitutes a unique view of draglines, grab cranes, dozers, excavators, scrapers, dump trucks, face shovels and graders at work during the past decade. Many of these machines are now out of commission.
This compilation on five disks offers more than nine hours’ viewing. The set covers the following:
Disc 1: Ruston-Bucyrus
Disc 2: Caterpillar
Disc 3: Draglines, Diggers and Bulldozers
Disc 4: Black Harvest – Coal
Disc 5: Dockside Cranes.
Geoff Lewis has drawn on his extensive knowledge of mining and earthmoving engineering to provide a knowledgeable commentary. His programmes include footage from quarries, gravel pits, construction sites, surface coal mines and docks. The filming is relaxed, offering machinery enthusiasts the chance to see the machines at work over several cycles.

Disc 1 Ruston-Bucyrus
The first programme is a mixture of archive footage from the 1930s with machines from the 1950s and 60s still working in the 2000s. Includes Ruston No. 4 dragline and skimmer; draglines 10-RB, 19-RB, 30-RB, 33-RB, 54-RB and 110-RB; face shovels 22-RB, 32-RB, 61-RB, 100-RB and 195-RB.

The second programme is Geoff Lewis’s own filming, some of the first he carried out: 22-RB face shovel, 38-RB and 71-RB grabs, 195-RB mining shovel.

Disc 2 Caterpillar
In the late 1990s Geoff Lewis filmed Caterpillar machines at work in south Wales. The first programme includes: bulldozers D8, D6H LGP, D11R; backhoes 235 and 375; loading shovels 5080 and 988/988F, scraper 637, ADT D400-E.

Programme 2 includes Cat machines as well as some from other manufacturers: Cat D9-H bulldozer, 631 and 637 scrapers; Komatsu PC450 backhoe, NH W270 front-loading shovel; O&K RH 120-E backhoe; NCK 605 rope shovel and 1495 grab crane.

Disc 3 Draglines, diggers and bulldozers
The ‘Ace of Spades’ is among the highlights of the draglines filmed in various UK sites. The draglines included are: Ruston-Bucyrus 71-RB, NCK 605 (two examples), Ransomes & Rapier W-150 and the P&H 757 ‘Ace of Spades’ walking dragline.

The second programme features a wide range of earthmovers: Komatsu D53P & D65 PX dozers, PC1250 backhoe; Cat D9-R dozers, 777D dump truck, 631 grader; Liebherr R974 face shovel; Robex backhoe; Amec hydraulic lorry grab and a Demag backhoe.

Disc 4 Black harvest - coal
The disc starts with the machines Geoff Lewis found at the Selar surface  coal mine, Hirwaun, south Wales at the turn of the 21st century: Cat 375 backhoes, PC240 face shovel, D9-R dozer, 16H motor grader; Komatsu PC3000 face shovel and HD785 dump trucks and engine re-fit; Moxy MT 40B ADT; Demag H185S backhoe.

For Part Two Geoff Lewis moved to surface mines at Parkslip, Bridgend and Nant Helen, Neath-Port Talbot, both in south Wales. Machines here were: Komatsu PC3000 face shovels (two examples) and HD785 dump trucks; Cat 777B, C & D dump trucks, D9-R dozer; Demag H185-S backhoe; O&K 120-E face shovel and 120-C backhoe; Terex TR100 dump trucks.

Disc 5 Dockside cranes
Geoff Lewis’s giants in the sky were all filmed in Newport Dock in 2000-2001. Loading sand, gravel and grain are several Stothert & Pitt grab cranes from the 1960s and a DD2 of 1950s vintage. A more modern Ainscough telescopic crane moves one of the grab cranes and a mobile Ruston-Bucyrus 61-RB discharges steel coils. The programme and DVD set ends with a close look at ‘Mersey  Mammoth’, the largest sea-going self-propelled crane on the UK’s west coast, seen lifting and moving a quayside crane.
 

Another memory of Dale Starks

Craig Bergan emailed us from America this week to say that he had enjoyed Rob White's book Starks' Harvesters and indeed had worked for Dale alongside Rob in 1980.

Craig had a story that Rob wished he had known in time to include in the book. As Rob puts it:

"I remember Craig as a quiet conscientious lad just out of school. He quit in Montana after Dale took his laundry into town one day to be washed – and lost it! Sounds about right! I bet Dale wouldn't have lost a combine part."

Agriculture in North America vol 2 DVD now in stock

Agriculture in North America, vol 2 by Tammo Gläser, DVD previewed in the blog of 20 January is now available at £19.95 from Old Pond.

David Kindred's website

Old Pond author David Kindred is known in Ipswich and East Anglia to have one of the finest archives of local photographs. David's passion for photographs showed during his long stint as photographer, picture editor and manager of photographic operations in the East Anglian Times group.

When David retired he began to publish weekly newspaper features, 'Kindred Spirits', based on local historical photographs, many of which were sent in by readers. This week reader Jenny Laughlin has responded to a feature on Bramford Road, Ipswich with a photograph of the Salvation Army guides and sunbeams on parade there in the 1950s (left) and memories of her own. She recalls her childhood when the area was full of shops, pubs and a community spirit: 'Those of us who grew up in that area have fond memories of living around there. All those homes and shops went when they built flats, so people moved all over Ipswich.'

The sad thing for those of us who have enjoyed David's features is that this week's was the last.

However, this has given David and his son James the opportunity to set up a new website www.kindred-spirit.co.uk on which they download articles which draw on David's ten years' writing and invite readers' responses. We can expect completely new features too. Besides his detailed knowledge of the town of Ipswich, David's specialist subjects are pirate radio, 1960s bands and Ipswich Town football teams in their glory days.

David is currently preparing an autumn 2011 book for Old Pond on the changing face of Ipswich. Yes, the town really has been transformed in the past hundred years - but has it kept its community spirit?

Long Haul Pioneers book back in stock

The Long Haul Pioneers, Ashley Coghill's popular account of Astran's Middle East trucking is now reprinted for the second time and back in stock at Old Pond.

Agriculture in North America vol 2 DVD advance information

Agriculture in North America vol 2, Tammo Gläser. DVD approx 90 minutes plus extras. £19.95 inc. VAT. Now in stock at Old Pond.

With a clear English-language voice-over, German film-maker Tammo Gläser shows aspects of very large-scale farming in Canada at harvest time. In particular he shows the operation of fourteen Case-IH combines (with pick-up headers) on one of the country’s biggest farms, near Lethbridge, Alberta.

The programme starts with five minutes’ summary of the contents of Volume 1. Then Tammo takes us to see a 475hp JD 9530 tractor on dual tyres pulling a disc-ripper combination to work manure into a stubble field. Throughout this part of the programme we are seeing minimum cultivations – assisted by satellite navigation – to reduce moisture loss.

The next stop is for a 250hp Steiger Cougar, again cultivating stubble immediately after harvest. There is a 12-metre ripper combination at the back of the tractor and a blade at the front for snow clearing and silage work.

Nearby, a Case IH Quadtrac 500 is using a 26-metre harrow. The cultivation machine on the neighbour’s 450hp Cat Challenger MT855 is 21 metres.

Made in the same factory as the Quadtrac, Tammo’s next find is an articulated New Holland NH TJ425 on dual wheels. This was operating with Easy-Steer sat nav assistance by means of which steering deviations are corrected by a small motor attached to the steering wheel. This system is movable and can be used on other tractors and combines to prevent overlaps.

In the last item before the combines we see a Miller self-propelled sprayer making full use of field mapping for optimum herbicide application.

The combines are two teams, each of seven Case IH 8120s axial-flow machines, working in a 250 hectare area of two fields. Each team has an experienced leading driver who sets the course for the other six machines in his group – with student operators – to follow. This is a superb sight, especially when seen in Tammo's aerial footage. Because harvest was delayed two weeks by bad weather the crop has already been cut and windrowed. The combines are picking up and threshing.

They are partnered by Case IH Steiger 485 tractors with Brent grain carts holding 40 cubic metres of grain. Transport from the field to the farm is by 600hp Peterbilts with loads up to 80 tonnes.

The crop is cut by Case IH WD ‘3’ series 126hp self-propelled windrowers with 11-metre attachments. Altogether they have 40,000 hectares to deal with – wheat, barley, rape and mustard. Yields are half European levels. Immediately after the crop is lifted the sprayers and air-seeders get stuck in.

This concludes the main part of the DVD. For his principal Extra, Tammo returns to Germany to show work with silage maize for biomass digesters in lower Saxony. Here two PistenBullys, better known as snow-grooming machines, are working on the clamp. With their low centre of gravity and hydrostatic drive, these agricultural adaptations are claimed to be ideal for this work.

We are also shown brief footage of the maize harvest where Claas Jaguar forage harvesters with maize harvest attachments are joined by Fendt tractors.

Appleby Fair book planned

Old Pond has added Heidi M Sands' forthcoming paperback The Horses of Appleby Fair to its current publishing schedule. Publication is planned for early June at the start of this year's fair.

Ice Road Truckers 4 and Ax Men 3 DVD news

Release months for the DVDs of Ice Road Truckers Season 4 and Ax Men Season 3 are May and July respectively. Old Pond expects to have stock available at the release dates.